Maryland Institude College of Art student Lindsay Bottos fought back this week in response to the outpouring of cruelty her Tumblr has received. Since 2010, Bottos has used Tumblr as a portfolio of her art and personal “selfies”. After receiving thousands of horrific anonymous messages about her uploads, she finally found an artistic use for them.

The artist, a photography major and gender studies minor, screencapped some of the messages and recreated the original photos which inspired the hateful messages. The result has become a powerful feminist art project called “Anonymous”.

Lindsay Bottos / Via lindsaybottos.tumblr.com

Bottos told Buzzfeed,

“The messages I’ve received are definitely indicative of a greater problem of online bullying and the anonymity of the internet,” she said. “In my personal experience from what I’ve seen on Tumblr, the majority of the people who get messages like this are girls and women. It’s hard to say, but it seems like a lot of girl-on-girl hate.”

As a female blogger, watching messages like this go viral is so empowering. Living in such a web-based culture has allowed cyber attacks to expand far and wide. Anonymous comments are basically cyber hit-and-runs. No one is expected to take responsibility, and it is virtually impossible to confront the aggressor.

Until now.

“I began screencapping all of the messages. I had them in a folder on my computer and I was just waiting to do something with them,” Bottos told Buzzfeed. “I decided to put them back into the medium they came from, to put them back into Tumblr and to place them over selfies.”

Lindsay Bottos / Via lindsaybottos.tumblr.com

“I picked the messages by subject matter: They reference my tattoos, or face, or weight, or body hair. I wanted them to represent the scope of the messages I get.” After re-taking the pictures the messages originally referenced, Bottos began sharing what she calls, “A work in progress.”

All I can say is, thank you Lindsay Bottos, for this much needed Virtual Wakeup Call. To those reading, I chose to share only 3 images from the “Anonymous” collection because I strongly encourage you to go look for yourself. This lovely artist is making a name for herself, for women, and for those who wish the internet wasn’t so cruel. “Anonymous” is only a week old, and I personally would like to make sure her message gets more popular. The more viral it becomes, the more likely those hateful critics will see what they have created.